


CryptLocked

by Liquid_Rites



Category: Homestuck, Monster Prom (Visual Novel)
Genre: AU?, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drama & Romance, Everyone Has Issues, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Multiple Pairings, Multiple Relationships, Other, The Author Regrets Everything, non-canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:55:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22203703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liquid_Rites/pseuds/Liquid_Rites
Summary: A group of devilishly attractive monsters in one completely average human start up a game section that destroys literally EVERYTHING they know and love. Unable to save the worlds they love they have to venture forth deeper into the game to create a new home and discover who they truly are.AKA: The characters Monster Prom literally plays the game from Homestuck and there is a singular OC there because I can’t write without at least one.Shenanigans and drama will ensue. That is all.
Kudos: 5





	CryptLocked

**Author's Note:**

> So, I honestly don’t know what I’m doing I thought the idea was cute, I hope somebody enjoys up beside me anyways. Apologies for not being able to write it in the second-person point of view typical of Homestuck and the Monster Prom proper.  
> I have a vague idea of how the story is going to go but I'm always open for suggestions. Anything from potential events that you would like to see or ideas of aspects and classes for each of the characters.  
> Hope to update as soon as I can.  
> All so this my frist post sorry for any erros.

Somewhere in the central United States, a young woman stands in her college dorm room, to her knowledge she is the only person still residing in the building. The entirety of the campus becoming a ghost town for the few weeks that made up winter break. She had a name that she used for signing documents and applying for classes, however, she felt more comfortable with the name of her Internet pseudonym Sara Riddle. Sara has a wide range of interests none of them truly helpful for the degree she was going for in college. One of which collecting hand fans from different cultures around the world, another was collecting candles and oils and pretty much like anything that gave off a pleasant scent. She also dabbled in the forbidden art of fanfiction and took pictures of empty shopping malls and theme parks to capture the feeling she describes as ‘neo-Gothic’.

  
Most importantly today the 31st of January was her twenty-first birthday; for others her situation this would be perfect to go out partying with their friends and get so blackout drunk they wouldn’t regain consciousness for the week after. However, she had no intention of going out for multiple reasons one of them being that she didn’t have any friends, except for one. Though she wasn’t sure how healthy it was to admit that her first friend since she graduated high school was dead. A ghost actually, a cheerful someone airheaded ghost that appeared to be always under the influence of something named Polly Geist. 

  
The two had met during the start of the fall semester, Polly had apparently got in a part-time job at one of her friend’s family business being a ‘personal demon’, which consisted in invisibly tormenting a human into making a bad decision. The only problem was the ghost girl wasn’t invisible to Sara, which resulted in many supernatural hijinks that may or not involved the defacement of private property. It was hard for Sara to remember which is surprising because she believes that she had been sober during the entire ordeal. Polly, however, must have enjoyed hanging out with her more than the ghost has but on. Because they kept in frequent contact, at least as much contact as a specter living in an alternate dimension could.

  
Sara moved to look the tiny window frost obscuring the view of the street outside the dorm. She had never enjoyed her birthday it had always been time to look back at the previous year with sadness and disappointment always feeling that she hadn’t done enough and wasn’t good enough. It was so hard for her to live in the moment with the crushing weight of the future bearing down and made even the sweetest discovery of having a new friend extremely bitter. It made her wonder when the last time she was truly excited about anything. When she had gotten accepted into college, she vomited from anxiety. She had an anxiety attack for every important event she could recall and that fact only brought tears to her eyes. 

  
A small ping from her phone drew her back from a spiral into lament. Picking up the phone Sara noticed that it was an Instagram direct message notification. She knew by the blue nearly transparent lips and seductive wink it was Polly. 

  
_Hey Booo! How is the thicc birthday girl doing~?_ The words were nestled in the rounded rectangle of her DM in a nest of party popper and smiley face emoji’s.

With a quick slide of her fingers, Sara typed back. _Hey. Please don’t call me thicc._

  
It only took a second for Polly to respond _You still up for gaming tonight? I know the club that both don't take ID and is super not humaphobic if you just want to paaarty!_

  
Sara paused taking Polly’s request with a great deal of seriousness, she knew that her ghost friend was an insatiable party attic and it would be wrong to deny her a good time. However she felt a great deal of regret as she typed: _I'm fine with just gaming, just waiting for my copies of SBURB in the mail._

  
Five clouds of over ecstatic emoji-filled the screen punctuated by a single. _Lol!_ Not even a second past is another bubble of text appeared _You still games in the mail?_

  
Sara typed out paragraphs upon paragraphs of what exactly she needed to receive the game in the mail and stressful hoops she had to jump through to even get a copy of the game. Then staring at the wall of frustration manifested text she slammed the backspace button on her phone and can sit down into a simple. _The games like ten years old, how did you get yours?_

  
_Downloaded it duuh. It just came out on Steam for us monsters._ Sara could practically hear the giggling in the ghost’s text.

  
_Is it still cursed?_ Sara hoped for Polly to give a straight answer whether or not monsters copy of SBURB would hold the same paranormal qualities that the game was fabled to have was of utmost importance. 

  
_Girl you know it is!_ A flurry of monster exclusive emojis filled the screen at such a rate of nearly crashed Sara’s phone _BTW why do you want to play a cursed game for your B-Day? ARE YOU PLANNING TO BE A GHOST TOO!!!_

  
Sara felt as if her throat was going to cave in at Polly's eagerness and simply typed in response a _Maybe._

  
_OH MY GOD!_ Polly responded in a singular line of text. No Emoji is no dancing gif or memes to punctuate her usual ecstatic way of typing. _OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!_ Sara that’s so coooool you want your b-day to be your deathaversary! Then the floodgates opened so much filled the DM channel to the point that both Sara’s app and found crashed, hard.

  
_I’m so glad you’re cool with this._ She responded to Polly in a new DM thread after several moments of rebooting.

  
_Sis you such a sweety!_ _There nothing that you’d suggest that I wouldn’t be down for!_ Polly responded with a singular almost apologetic feeling winking kissy face emoji.

  
A tear fell on Sara's phone screen without her even realizing she had begun to cry. She did not know how to react to Polly's passive usage of Sis. The reasonable part of her mind tried to console herself Polly's use of the word was the same way others would use buddy or pal it meant nothing and that she really shouldn't put any stock in it. Though there was a report about them that was sisterly in the way a little sister looks up to an overly inebriated big sister who takes her on adventures that she wasn't exactly ready for but always needed to experience. Sara briefly wondered what the world would be like if she didn't apparently have a latent ghost seeing powers, she assumed Polly would just possess her or whatever ghost do to influence the mortal plane and go partying. She assumed that timeline would’ve been a lonely and if a shorter one if that were to happen.

  
_Hey, mind if some of my pals join in? I want this game session to be HUGE for my first human soon to be ghost friend!_ The ping of Polly’s request stopped the more painful thoughts from adding to the mixture of salty tears and some from pouring down her face.

  
_Sure, go ahead._ Sara answered there was clearly no harm that could be done with Polly getting her way since the game that they were going to play didn’t really have a set player limit.

  
_AWWSOOOME! BRB BOO!_

  
Sara put down the phone taking a break from the fairly simple but emotionally taxing conversation. Leaving her phone on her bed she went out of her dorm and into the communal washroom to clean her face. Even though there be no one to see her today dried tears on her cheeks always made her feel shamefully filthy. 

  
Splashing cold water on her face washing the way the salty mask of tears and other fluids from her face. Sara propped her elbows against one the sinks in the dorm shower room as she stared at the mirror in front of her. She couldn't blame Polly for calling her thick by no means was she thin, though the term marshmallow or dumpling would be a more proper description of her body shape than thick with the double C spelling. Despite whatever her personal opinions had been given enough information to know that she wasn’t horribly unattractive she had some assets that people would consider attractive if not connected to other parts of her body. For example, her hair itself was a topic of great debate when it came to her attractiveness one was thick and full and relatively healthy. However, it will do whatever it damn pleases the matter amount of hairspray crimping curling or flattening becomes of it. Her hair will be wavy or frizzy or whatever it feels like when she wakes up in the morning as if it had a mind of its own.

  
Reflectively she took her still damn hands and rammed it down her hair trying to smooth out the flyaway hairs and rebel curls. Her hand settled around her round warm cheeks as the mosaic of her hazel eyes stared soundly into her reflection. She felt filthy more than just crying around an empty dormitory and feeling the weight of an impending quarter-life crisis. It was selfishness, she felt so selfish that she can be so crippled by anxiety and miserable on her birthday let alone be miserable on any day when she said it more than a pleasant life. Her eyes flicked down to the top of her cheek were the barest shadow of a faded scar. 

  
Yes, completely pleasant life and hopefully it would all be over soon.

  
The sound of her phone another distraction to pull her away from a set of thought she wasn't ready to accept to be her own. It was buzzing loud and longer than just a simple notification and when she finally got to where she left her phone it was clear it wasn’t. Her phone is ringing due to an incoming call as well is presumably quite a few missed calls the monster world since any numbers from that dimension seem to always appear as complete gibberish on the screen. She picked it up worried that it was Polly having to their cancel plans of playing SBURB.

  
“Sara?”

  
The voice coming from the other line of the phone was not Polly’s.

  
“Sara fucking Riddle!” The voice was like bitter cholate to her eardrums making her throat seize up with the force of their anger “Answer me human!” A hiss that lingered like the steam in a cooling kettle “I will use your real name if you do not start speaking goddamit!" 

  
Sara's mouth felt to wet as she tasted the burn of acid “What you want?” she quietly. The threat of being addressed true name killing any desire to just hang up on the monster. If any amount of high fantasy novels had taught her anything you don’t mess with the magical creature monstrous or divine if they know your birth name.

  
There was a sound of air crackling the phone speaker, a poor approximation to something like a sigh be for someone without lungs. “Look at your phone.” 

  
Slowly she jerked her hand down to look at the phone.

  
“What the fuck!” The expletive escaped her lips before she really processes the image.

  
The timer indicating how much time she had been long talking to the monster on the line was counting down to zero instead of recording how long she had actually been on the phone. “What did you do with my phone!” She saw scarier things will have happened when she got prank called by Polly to get her on social media, it was just a sight that she really didn’t need at that moment.

  
“Nothing!” The caller snapped in a way that would have sounded flirty if it wasn’t dripping with the type of hate that Sara had only heard once before in her life “I’m calling from the future. After the apocalypse.”

  
Sara's mouth fell open as her eyes flicked to the window of her dorm room. The bleakness of the world outside cast the outline of her eyes wide with the emotions she couldn't quite process.

  
“Yeah, being a harbinger of death means you get to ‘live’ past all that end of the world stuff.” Their voice was gruff yet gloating answering a question the human didn’t ask “It’s kind of my job but now when the concept of death is starting to disappear from a decaying reality, what’s going on is more than just the run-of-the-mill apocalypse.” The sentence was punctuated by that confusing tone that was both flirtatious and hate-filled “You feel me human?”

  
Taking a long inhale of breath Sara asked the unnamed Grim Reaper and tied into her fist “What do you want?” Her hand went slack as her breath escaped with each word.  
“You’re forward, that’s good.” Something like disappointment contradicted the monster’s words "I'm sending you a text with a file whatever you do don’t look at what’s in this file.”

  
“Why?” Sara asked.

  
“You’d die instantly.” The harbinger of death said bluntly.

  
“Good to know.” Sara is a voice raised an octave adding sarcasm to her response.

  
The Grim Reaper continued to speak ignoring or at least not giving Sara’s comments any attention “In a few hours the game you going to start will get serious.”

  
“Apocalyptically serious?” The corner of Sara’s mouth quirked up in a week smirk.

  
“You know just shut up!” The stranger barked at her comment furiously, all hints of inky flirtation were nowhere to be found “You don’t get to make jokes when this is all your fault!”

  
Sara felt the joint sensation of being both slapped and thrown into a freezer. The Grim Reaper was correct on that point even though from her perspective she hadn’t done anything yet. She braved deeply blinking harder as her eyes became moistened with tears as the pain of her uncommitted crimes way down on her.

  
“Like I said in a few hours the little recruitment campaign that you started will turn into a rescue mission.” They continued speaking unaware or at least not caring about their word affected her “The person who is interested in getting me on board couldn’t do it and to be fair I was in my own little world at that moment.” 

  
The sound of a text notification made Sara look and indeed there was a text from an unknown gibberish number that meant it was from the monster world. Just like the harbinger of death said there was a single ‘firstvid.mov’ snuggled into the text bubble. The title was so innocent she wondered what was so lethal about the contents of the video.

  
“This time make sure I see what’s on that file got it?” The Reaper’s crackled as she put her phone up to her ear.

  
“And if I don’t?” Sara’s voice cracked it was a futile threat but a part of her was not content taking orders from this monster lying down. It was honestly their fault for not playing the game the first time around it should have to suffer the same fate she would.

  
The reaper let out a laugh that slowly devolved into a tired sigh "You will. I know more than just your actual name Sara, don’t screw with me.” And with the solemn threat ensconced in her mind the timer on the phone hit all zeros and they hung up.

  
The urge to fall to her knees and curled up into a ball filled the human girl until her joints began to ache. The only thing immediately stopping her from doing so was the time, if the mail with her copy of the SBURB hadn't arrived it would be there very soon. The thought of finally holding the game that had eluded her for a decade to finally gave her the energy to forget about the call from the future. She had a future and a friend to think about saving if the curse is to be true.

  
Shoving her phone in her inner pocket she descended down to the ground floor. Past the kitchen that had every kitchen appliance known to man except for an oven or stove into the communal living room. Even from the window, she could see a large set of packages waiting outside the door. One was as tall as she was though not as wide in a couple shoebox-sized packages and one large manila envelope. She opened the door and dragged each of the men not even bothering to put on shoes as her feet briefly touched frigid concrete. 

  
Going from largest to smallest she used her hands to open up the tallest box. To be around in the packing peanuts she pulled out a ridiculously large hand fan. The fan went up to her waist in height and felt like a sturdy bat closed. Sara then took two more around the same size out of the three she recognized two of them from her collection at home. Two of them were familiar with her even close she recognized the beige and black paper that made up the two largest fans in her collection. The light brown one had found a home as a head board in our family home in suburbia, a logical conclusion of the fan's massive size when opened, during her phase she’d like to have her collection opened and pinned to the walls the way entomologists do with butterflies.

  
The third one was completely new to her even close she could see the darker wood in the scarlet fabric that it was of higher quality compared to the paper ones. Tentatively she opened it up watching the fabric folds spread wide like the wings of an albatross. The design etched into the fabric was a stunning piece of artistry it wasn’t the common design of large branching trees and lines of poetry like the paper ones. Instead of black threads were woven to mimic the lines of an ink brush forming a stylistic representation of what looked like a land of clockwork and insects a surreal but familiar landscape of where the biological and technological mashed in harmony.

  
Sara close the red fan and put it beside the other two, the dorm's decoration policy she couldn't put him up on the walls she would have to store them away in her wardrobe with the Eastern and Western parasols she kept dear. Her wardrobe was becoming more filled with her collections and in the next of her interests than a space to put her close. It honestly had become more of a horde where each little object had just enough significance to not begin rate of but not enough to bring her any joy. Another trade about herself that was unabashedly selfish, it made her sick to think about the lack of care she took with things she tried to find joy in.

  
With a little more effort, she ripped the tape off the smaller matching boxes. Gliding her hands under the packing peanuts and protective raps she pulled to smaller boxes out from within them. One box she recognized it was a battery-powered electrical music box, one she's had since she was baby. Clearing off the plastic wrap from the top lid she viewed into the glass top that held a tiny mechanical interpretation of Eden with a lion and lamb sleeping snugly together as other animals paraded around in the three big looping circles around. She loved this music box because it would play without any winding up and held a bunch of different little songs. The other tiny box was a music box as well both a large windup crank like it was smashed together with the remains of a medal Jack-in-the-Box. There is something both whimsical and yet unnerving about the spiral patterns in the stained-glass that made up the sides.

  
Taped to the lid of it was a birthday card, a cheesy one where animals were Photoshop doing cartoony things like trying to light an enormous birthday cake. Sara opened her eyes skimming over the following blurb ridden inside in pen.

  
_To our wonderful daughter,_  
_We're so sorry that your schoolwork has kept you away from coming home this winter. Christmas just wasn't the same without you perhaps after the spring semester you can move back and complete your degrees back in college home in Arizona. I was so proud that you're being able to spend a whole year by yourself, the fact that you manage to graduate high school has exceeded our wildest dreams._  
_The holidays have been so busy so we fund sure birthday gifts with your Christmas gifts they should have been sent right along with this letter. It's so hard to buy for you since you're not really vocal about what you like anymore. Member of anything it’s hard or too much for you were always a phone call away._  
_With all the love in the world your parents._

Sara closes the card and sighed, the mixture of her parents saying that she was proud of the certainty that she would return home made her chest pinch. She couldn't go back home, not because she felt any freer thousands of miles away from where she was born. It was just easier to hide her insecurities about college from her parents. In another state, she could pick courses from her degree pathway without much thought of how much longer she had to go tell she was able to apply for the degree or about credits not actually counting. She didn't even have to think about the fact that she was taking longer than the other college students who it started around the same time as her.

  
In her mind returning home would be a lake reverting back into a Caterpillar always eating and trudging up and down branches to avoid death. Here in the quiet dorm room was her chrysalis where she will either create our metamorphosis into something else or death will take her when she is the least aware of it. It was easier to think that way even now when she knew monsters where real and had a conversation with a Grim Reaper and survived it.

  
She moved the boxes of gifts into the communal living room putting the music boxes on a side table by the couch. There is no rush to hide them away just now since the other inhabitants of the dorm wouldn’t be returning until next week. Feeling somewhat exhausted she went to the kitchen to retrieve scissors and finally opened up the large envelope. She then as if extracting a glass feather, pulled out the paper containers that held the two discs for SBURB. To her surprise, there was a small paper pamphlet that must've been the setup and user guide for the game.

  
Holding up the pamphlet between her fingers she could feel the rough paper her thumb brushing up against the image on the cover spreading the ink around to the point that the simplistic house looks something more to a misshapen coffin. Page by page she looked through the small rectangles of images and words trying to absorb the basic mechanics of the game. To further she got into the page the more smudged the text became and more unrecognizable the images were. Even so, as she tucked the two discs under her arm she continued to flip through the pages.

  
A feeling blossomed in her chest it wasn’t exactly excitement but the nostalgic feeling of where excitement should have been. It was the slow delayed gratification that would have burned as hot as a newborn star if it had been bestowed upon her when she was eleven. As she watched the small bar of SBURB’s loading screen fill up on her laptop it felt like a chill breeze blowing over a patch of skin that had once been covered by a bandage.

  
Looking at her phone she noticed that all he hadn’t gotten back to her on having more players and DM’d her asking. _Hey! My game came. What did your friends say?_

  
Polly’s response was nearly instantaneous. _Their all SO EXCITED! Not everyone on my list has technically said ‘yes’, but they will~_

  
_Cool, cool. Uh, Polly._ Sara smiled the calmness of having her plans finally set into motion made her feel somewhat charitable.

  
_Boo?_ Polly pinged back with a customer shrugging ghost emoji.

  
Sara looked at the text message that the harbinger of death had given her and told her incorporeal friend: _I got a really weird phone call._

  
_OooOoh?_ The sure energy of Polly’s response was more potent than any Emoji the specter could have posted. It was gossip time.

  
_They were a monster, I think._ Sara responded with that emoji she couldn't understand the one between frowning and meh with the eyes closed. It's a time travel to tell me that they want to play the game to? 

  
_Time travel? Yeah, I got so many close buddies that can do that. Did they give your name?_ Polly responded.

  
Sara looked at the video file not clicking it out of the fear of her mortal life, thankfully she had a friend that wasn't so mortal who could satiate her curiosity. _No… but they gave me a video file._

  
It only a breath for Polly to answer with. _OOH! LET ME SEE!_

  
Careful as not to open the file she forwarded the text and its contents over to Instagram to let Polly see. She let her thumb hover above the send button and briefly contemplated what were the laws and rules of technically being undead, the sudden fear of invoking a second death on her ghost friend creeping into her mind. Then with a sigh pressed the button and let it go through.

  
_LAMO!_ Polly’s words practically shake on the phone screen. _Did you watch this to Sis!_

  
_No apparently, I’ll die if I watch it._

  
_Of LOLs!_ Polly have posted several bubbles of crying laughing Emoji’s. _Give me a sec to send this to somebody and then start your b-day game._

  
_K._ Sara responded before absentmindedly flipping through her phone.

  
She looked at her computer screen at the setup menu reminiscent of the first Sims game with that style. She wondered what would happen if she started the game now with only her to play with it. Nothing good judging by the gameplay pamphlet urging that there be two or more players which only made her wonder what the max number of players was. She assumed of a study Internet connection you could have an infinite number of players and run the game like an MMO. However, that idea didn’t appeal to her since a larger amount of people that were playing the game it seemed more unlikely that the game would ever be completed.

  
Sara put her forehead to her desk she felt sick and frigid with nerves, the thought of future becoming almost too much. 

  
_Okay, I'm ready how do we play this game!_ The phone pinged with Polly’s DM.

  
Sighing Sara flipped through the pamphlet and typed out. _It’s a little complicated but we make a chain of server and client players until we kinda make a circle._

  
_Then we win the game right making a big ring around the rosie of computers!_

  
_No. That's just the setup._

  
_Dang._ A frowning Emoji was the only indicator of the ghost’s dissatisfaction. _This game better is worth it?_

  
Trust me it will.

  
_Okay, you want to do this in VC?_

  
Sara didn’t get a chance to respond as Polly set her a link to what looked like the monster equivalent of Discord server. It appeared to be just like Discord in every way even when downloading at the only difference seemed to be an ecstatic one where there appeared to be too little things dangling out of the Mickey Mouse pants icon that was the apps logo. She scrolled through the empty server that was named ‘silentparadox’ before entering the voice channel with Polly.

  
She put her phone on speaker phone and said "Hey, Polly!" 

  
There was a crackling as the cheerful yet surprisingly ever flirty voice of Polly said “Hold up it’s hard to get headphones on with an incorporeal body.” The crackles settled down “So yeah set up server and client who is doing what?”

  
Sara contemplating the decision to “I have an older version of the game so you should try connecting with me first.”

  
The soft padding of typing came through the speakers of her phone. There are a couple more clicks and then Polly let out a loud grumbling noise like the kurr of a frog.

  
“I can’t be your server it’s like you don’t exist.” Polly grumbled.

  
Sara smiled realizing that she had actually missed the sound of Polly’s voice how even when the ghost seemed frustrated there was always a sense of playfulness to it. “It’s okay I’ll be your server and we can get you into the game first.” She said comfortingly.

  
She clicked through the games setting and set herself up as Polly’s server player. The game loaded briefly before going dark and fading into what looked like a bedroom from a semi-top-down perspective, it was a very different space than Sara’s dorm room. Sara’s dorm room was messy from wall-to-wall but mainly for the fact that she didn’t have the time or the emotional strength to clean it. Besides tucking the things, she had an emotional connection with a way so no eye could see it. The room she peered into now was messy and a way to put everything on display chess sets, books unfinished bowls of what she hoped was food and things that made her uncomfortable to stare long periods that lie about in eye-catching ways. The only thing that didn’t seem to be in disarray was the bed which while made seemed to have a complicated 3-D chess devouring the flat and dusty sheets. The chess set with white and black and green and ride frozen in a perpetual war waiting for an unseen hand to compel them into action.  


“I’m in!” Sara gasped waving her cursor across the screen to see what was intractable “I can see your room!”

  
“For reals!” Polly squealed “Like what you see?”

  
Sara froze for a moment the feeling of finally being able to play SBURB mixing of her opinion of what she saw in front of her “It’s surprising.” She eventually said “Where are you? somewhere else in your apartment?”

  
“No, I'm in my room." Polly answered sounding confused by your question.

  
Sara navigated the rooms of Polly’s apartment to make sure she wasn’t being praying before saying “For some reason the game’s not able to see you.” 

  
Polly made out a disgruntled noise before saying “It must be your stupid human version of the games.” A headset that Sara had assumed was dangling from the chair were Polly’s laptops sat bobbed a little “Human technology always flip-flops on whether or not he can see ghosts are not.”

  
“I’m sorry.” Sara felt like she needed to apologize even though she knew she had no control of whether or not technology could pick up on the supernatural.

  
“No, it okay.” Polly said as the laptop began from the what looked like Sara’s perspective began to float. “So, what now, you just going to peer into all my personal spaces.”

  
In order to not answer in the affirmative Sara quickly moved to interact with something in Polly’s bathroom. After all being dead probably meant that the ghost wouldn’t mind if anything bad happened in there. “I’m just trying to figure out the controls. Shit!” Sara’s hand slipped and the bathtub that she was trying pick up with her cursor was thrown out the bathroom wall, out into the hallway that connected the apartments together. Panicked Sara did her best to pull the tub back and put it back in its rightful place only to misjudge the strength of her furniture manipulating powers and busted through another wall. That one leading outside causing the bathtub to tumble several stories and shattering on an innocent goblin on the rainy streets below.

  
"Was that my bathtub?" Polly asked as the laptop lazily floated to rest on the sink. Only to be lifted up again and retreat to the bathroom door.

  
“Sorry!” Sara abandoned dropped her mouse to nervously play at her hair “It busted through the wall and it’s raining out super bad!” this was definitely something to apologize for “I’m getting all your stuff wet too!”

  
Polly giggled as the laptop she was levitating drifted further from bathroom door “It’s no biggie.” Polly said being a little more forceful for cheerfulness “Why don’t try to do something away from the hole.”

  
“Um okay." Sara said "Is everything okay? You sound nervous."

  
“Oh, it’s nothing.” Polly answered “it’s just an ecto-storm and I’m not ready to experience that just yet.”

  
Sara had watched enough 80s movies involving ghosts and Nickelodeon cartoons to know that ‘ecto’ meant ghost in the common vernacular. “Is it dangerous? I don’t want you to get hurt.” She hadn’t planned for the game and is rumored a curse to Polly.

  
"Boo, you need to chill." Polly’s came out so forcefully it almost sounded she was scolding Sara "I should be fine if I stay inside." 

  
Sara watched Polly’s laptop flowed over to a worn-out couch in the living room. When she was sure that her ghost friend was settled with the whatever she was doing she tentatively said. “It looks like I can put down an item." She said looking at the in-game items that cost a type of currency called ‘grist’. If her mental estimation was to believed she had just enough to put down all the items available "anywhere I should put it?” She tentatively asked to not wanting to have a repeat of the bathroom.

  
“Anywhere I just float through the walls.”

  
With the nonchalant okay given Sara put down the first of three pieces of machinery right in front of the bedroom door. "It’s called a Cruxtruder?” She said unsure if she pronounces the word right or if it even was a word at all.

  
Sara could hear the sound the valve on the side of the contraption squeaking, the lid on it cylindrical top bursting open. From the two of a flashing blue and white disc with an ever-morphing circular image within it. She remembered seeing the image on one of the games loading screens and curious she began to flip through the pamphlets to figure out what it was. She saw the image everywhere in various forms and colors but no clear definition of what it was or what it was supposed to do.

  
The sound of a long static ‘Eeeee’ noise filled Sara’s phone speakers ending with an excited. “it’s so shiny!” The ghost girl squealed at the flashing blue discs to be moving slowly around the room as if it was following something presumably Polly around the apartment.

  
Sara nervously flipped study the pamphlet more as she placed down the other available objects. That’s when she noticed something was blinking on Cruxtruder, a tiny little rectangular screen that reminded her of an old alarm clock. She noticed that there were a series of numbers that was currently at four minutes and twenty-seven seconds and was quickly counting down.

  
“Polly?” Sara leaned into her phone Mike unsure where the ghost was in relation to the now stationary laptop. “Polly there’s a timer!” She screamed hoping that the ghost was able to hear her.

  
Panic she flipped through the pamphlets the words becoming vaguer and gibberish as she expected it would. Her eyes went wide as she looked at a page that she must not have mentally noted before. A meteorite scribbled in something that must’ve been orange crayon smacking into a stereo typical suburban house. Something like a physical and packed throttled Sara’s mind as visions and in implications flooded her, an empty stores shelf, a governmentwide recall, and rumors and websites about a curse to game that you would die attempting to play.

  
There is a sound of an explosion in a series of flashes that happened on screen. Her face so buried in the pamphlet that her mind immediately filled in the worst details. I killed her. it wasn’t supposed to go this way. She thought squeezing her eyes shut to prevent tears. How could she of forgotten so easily. 

  
Then quietly just under the sound of phone static in rain she heard the sound of something else. It was like a squawking of a bird mixed with a chainsaw which made her look back up at the computer screen. The blue circular disk was gone in its place was a bizarre blue creature whose body seemed to morph between several chess pieces with penguin faces.

  
“Polly?” Sara tossed the booklet away trying to figure out what happened. “You’re alive right?!”

  
“No, I’m a ghost dummy.” Sara felt the wash of relief as Polly giggled "Yeah the sparkly blue portal thing was chasing me so I ended up having one of my favorite chess sets and my Wilkinson's mask in there and it made this little chest piece penguin buddy." 

  
Glancing around at the many chessboard still lying around and the monolith of a 3-D chess sets still on her bed she was confused on which favorite board had been tossed in. With her cursor she followed the penguin pawn sprite to dream piece of machinery that she had to double check was called a Totem Lathe. Which was a strange mix between a sewing machine and a laser printer, besides which a strange squiggly object made out of blue something. It was much too opaque to be glass but didn’t seem to have the organic structure to be type of gemstone. Maybe it was one of those fancy substances that they use in eyewear to color the lenses in funky overly expensive colors.

  
The structure began to begin to float as it was brought back over to the laptop “I’ve turned the blue tube into the squiggly shape, I thought it was going to make me a new toy.” Polly said teasingly.

  
Sara knowing very well what use that new toy would’ve been sighed in irritation "Polly please don't talk about that." She said feeling uncomfortable "Just put the that totem on the pad thing." She instructed "Hurry please, that timer can't mean anything good." 

  
“Calm down there is like two minutes left.” Polly said in a way that Sara sound was supposed to sound like a sagely nonchalant, but frankly just made the ghost sound like she was high.

  
Sara shook her head knowing her ghost friend, not even two days would be enough time if she got any more distracted “Polly.” She tried to piece together the best way to say that Polly’s life was in danger when the ghost really didn’t worry about those types of things.

  
“Hey watch this is a cooler or less cool that you can’t see me on the camera when I ghost juggle?” Polly asked using her those powers to lift multiple things at once and tried to toss them in a circular motion. The penguin face to now knight sprite twirled around in a counter circle still trailing the form of the unseen ghost.

  
Sara didn’t know what to do in that moment she wanted to be respectful to the only friends she had, but deep inside she knew that she didn’t want her to experience a double death. So, taking a note out of her conversation with the Grim Reaper she decided to take a risk and go for a more abrasive approach. Using the how shape cursor she left up Polly’s laptop and place it on the counter of the ghost’s kitchenette and then flung Polly’s couch right through the ceiling and out to the roof of the building. A deluge of rain comes rushing through the new hole up close the rain seemed greenish and almost slimy as it plopped down to flood the apartments living room.

  
The objects the ghost was hovering in the air dropped and scattered across the floor as the penguin Bishop piece moved in the direction of where Polly must’ve scampered to"Like to do that I get that you're dense for human but you understand like ecto-storms ripped ghosts apart!” Polly’s voice was serious all fun gone from the situation “You didn’t like that’s why hauntings usually happen like in crypts or places with roofs or even in a dense forest and places where the rain doesn't hit the ground that much!"

  
Sara gripped her mouse tight as she kept her voice even “Look up at the sky Polly!”

  
Sara couldn’t turn the games camera to look up at the sky but she could only assume what Polly would see if she attempted to pair up at the hole. A fiery ball of red growing and blazing hot like a second son as it broke through the veil of heavy paranormal clouds. Both forces racing and working in tandem to bring an end to the ghost below them.

  
“Holy crap that’s a meteor!” Polly startled reaction was enough to know that she was right.

  
“Yes, Polly that’s the point of the curse of this cursed game!” Sara couldn’t help but raise her voice.

  
"Oh yeah, now I get it pretty cool, like totally forgot about the curse for a second there." Even though the ghost to laughed it was clear that she was frightened.  
"There is a world-ending event coming for everyone who has a copy of this game right now." Sara explained she could feel her self-trembling.

  
“Our friends! We gotta save you from this curse so you can have the best b-day ever sis!" 

  
"I can't be a ghost if you saved me, Polly." Sara couldn’t help but smile at her sudden understanding " You have to save friends and keep play for me okay."   
Polly laughed but it wasn’t the usual flirty giggle, it was forced and completely sober "Oh, you got to die! Silly, so that's the plan?" 

  
“First we finish setting you up and then once you’re safe in the game you can set up the rest of your friends.” Sara explained doing her best to use a nearby coffee table to provide some coverage for the hole on the roof. “I don’t think they’d be ready to be ghosts.”

  
“You’re right the afterlife is a big commitment.” Polly laughed again still avoiding her self-proclaimed buddy all the while. 

  
With a little more care this time to move the last piece of machinery to be tried into the open space of the living room.

  
Of her heart pounding in her throat Sara flipped through the pamphlet trying to look through “Polly put that tome and that cylinder slot on the alchemiter pad.” Now Sara knew for certain that she had mispronounced the gadget that she just put down.

  
The visible sky around Polly’s apartment started to turn an angry mix of red and illuminated as the meteor hurtled ever closer to the ground. The timer was under a minute now and Polly complied in putting the carved dowel into the only places seem to fit. There was a popping sound as air was forcibly moved from a singular space throughout the room as a singular Chihuahua sized blue chest piece into the middle of the circular pad.

  
“Um Sara, I think I’m supposed to behead this King?” Polly’s voice sounded far off as the gigantic chest piece floated in space.

  
“Do it.” Sara said encouragingly.

  
"See you when you're a ghost, Sis." Polly’s voice was knowing but instead of seeing the truth the blue chess piece was smacked hard against the white metallic machine. The force of the impact cracking and snapping off the king’s crown forcing it to tumble to the floor.

  
"Goodbye Polly, you're a great friend." Sara said wiping her moistened eyes as she ended the voice chat.

  
She watched as the screen flashed flashing distorted before completely going black. Sara stood up knowing that Polly would be okay wherever she was in whatever land or moon or planet she was teleported to. Herself on the other hand wouldn’t be going anywhere except maybe to have a nap so at least she wouldn’t be aware for what was coming for her.

  
As she stepped out into the hall her phone began to ring again staring at the number, she had a feeling who it might be and answered it.

  
“Hey did everything work out?” She asked.

  
A familiar voice confirmed her suspicions “You mean Donny Darkoing yourself, all humankind and multiple dimensions connected to your planet to save a few monsters, then yes.”

  
Sara couldn’t help but chuckle since the comparison to the horror movie protagonist was nothing more than way off the mark of what she tried to do.

Then remembering their last conversation, she asked “Do you still know my name?”

  
“Sara right that’s what Polly said when she let it slip that you existed.” The Grim Reaper answered.

  
Sara smiled at the news “You all bet the game?” She asked.

  
“Yes, some part of the game won’t work as it was supposed to, but yeah got our asses in gear and made it happen.” There was a hint of a smile in their voice.

  
Sara closed her eyes and smiled at the thought. Everything turned out all right in the end Polly and her friends were able to beat the game and move on. She didn’t mind that she wouldn’t able to see a long as it happened.

  
“Until the end.”

“What?” Her mind screeched to a stop like the scratching of a record player.

  
"We did bet the game, but were locked out of the prize the whole point of the game. We've tried everything used our powers and search through what we remained but we can't seem to crack the lock." The voice recounted the event’s with bitterness "We have to and put in a passcode but I don’t think there’s actually anything we can put in there they’ll be correct. It’s just there to be a giant middle finger for us cheating.”

  
Sara leaned against the wall “So, your game’s Null?” She asked.

  
"More like a doomed timeline with a sense of humor." There was a pause the harbinger of death clearly thinking about Sara’s statement "For a human, you should know a lot about a game you've never played until a few seconds ago." 

  
Her finger traced small little swirls on the wall. “I’ve done my research.” Well it wasn’t a lie the admission still made her feel guilty. What else was she going to do for eleven years as the dream of playing recall the game slowly slipped away from her mind.

  
“As I was going to say before I went off on that little tangent. I'm going to send a message back in the past videos, stories, and stuff.” The Reaper began to explain they’re true intention “Make sure you actually join the game instead of using the Lord of Dreams mod to bypass you as we did in this TimeLine. I’d go back myself if, but I want to stay with my friends.”

  
“What no!” Sara’s words slipped out before her mind could edit it into some that would be more respectful. Something with a little more friendliness and graduated like: Oh, thank you, future voice person. May, I ask your name so I give a peck on the cheek when we finally meet, my hero. Not the kneejerk reaction she just uttered.  
“I don’t need your consent to save my friends!” The harbinger of death snapped but this Sara they might as well been talking underwater “Just sit there and take the whole not sacrificing yourself thing seriously. Your plan failed." 

  
Sara stomach clenched at those words, but she knew it be right. She was just a dumb, squishy, pathetic human after all. Not just that but she was probably the lowest quality of humans possible. Not enough flaws to be considered, pitiful too much skill to be considered an underdog, and just the right amount of fuck up. Of course, the monsters with their infinite amount of power and otherworldly potential wouldn’t willingly go back and see if someone like her if it wasn’t to save themselves.

  
“Fine.” Sara side as she took a few more steps down the hall “Just can I ask you something?”

  
“No.” Their voice was teasing like the smell of cookies drifting over a cement wall. “Sorry, but I’ve been around the block with mortals be cute trying to stall me from doing my job.”

  
“I hate you!” Her voice came out squeaky like a child, but to her it felt like she had finally spoken the truth that was inside her for the first time.

  
"Yeah, and it sucks to have to be your guardian angel too!" The voice growled to disgusted with her to raise their voice and return " Fucking, bitch!" They muttered before hanging up the phone.

Sara through her phone across the room hot tears streaming down her face like rivers. She didn’t care that she was crying her, heart ached as the one little bit of control she had was ripped from her. She had to die! 

  
If she joins the game, she wouldn’t be able to live with what she had just done. The blood of billions of humans and other sentiment creatures were on her hands into deserve to die with the rest of them it was only just. Her chest heaved as her body shake to her limbs felt cold as her chest and face fell too hot to even hold herself. The emotional distress she felt became so strong that her body ached as if she was going through growing pains. The world it in that moment felt so large and was crashing down upon her.  
Let that Grim Reaper try to keep me alive. She thought as she gasped for air as she slumped against the wall sliding all the way down until she was laying against the matted carpet of the hall. Sara had done the one thing she had wanted to do most of her life, the single act of selfishness that was more powerful than any other petty dream she had had up to that point. Thereby throwing everything else away she had no purpose beyond that selfish act the one that rending a part of the earth with burning rocks from the sky. There was no purpose for her to go on she had destroyed all her chances for a role in this life and you should be too weak to participate in the next. 

All she wanted to do know was sleep and dream of an ultimate reward that existed beyond a locked door, and that lock finally coming undone.


End file.
